Various software programs and platforms exist to allow users to interact with documents and other files. These include word processing applications, document viewing applications, spreadsheet applications, and others. In some situations, a user may need to review documents and copy information between different programs, which may be achieved by simple copy and paste commands under many conditions. In some situations, however, it is desirable to generate a link connecting data across multiple applications. As an example, a user may wish to provide a link to a portion of a document cited in a report in connection with copied text from the document. To establish and track such inter-application links, custom add-ins are generally installed into each of the relevant software applications. The custom add-ins facilitate direct communication between the applications operating on the same computer. Because of security concerns, such custom add-ins must typically be installed by authorized personnel having administrative access to each computer on which they are to be installed. Additionally, such add-ins inherently create new security vulnerabilities by creating new entry points for attack by malicious software or unauthorized users. These security vulnerabilities generally become worse with time unless additional security updates or patches are installed, requiring further involvement of authorized personnel.